I've been doing research on industry sites, as I like to keep on top of the marketing trends in this hobby of ours. Remember back in January at CES the group representing HD DVD touts that Chinese manufacturers would be flooding the market with low cost HD DVD machines, guaranteed to end the format war? Well, its almost September and nothing yet, still some hopeful retailers are holding out expecting units by Christmas. Universal and Warner execs have said they haven't heard of firm date, Wal-Mart which caused a major stir with it's threats to import over a million low buck units, is now singing a different song. The answer to a question posed by VB (industry marketing) was a little revelatory, according to Wal-Mart "we are still evaluating the situation and NOT MAKING A DECISION to go solely with one over the other right now. Ultimately the decision comes down to providing what the customer really wants. At Wal-Mart, we will continue to sell BOTH DVD formats at compelling prices and LET THE CONSUMER CLEARLY VOTE WITH THEIR PURCHASES on which format wins out." Clearly this is a straddle-the-fence policy. Other retailers have commented that nothing has come down the pipeline as to when or if low cost Chinese players will be shipped this year by Q4. Value electronics, a major importer said that they contacted Chinese manufacturers that are making Blu-ray Disc players and HD DVD players, but negated any chance of importing the low buck units this year due to compliance concerns. It's their opinion that a major retailer such as Wal-Mart has the resources to be the first to bring such low cost units and make sure they're compliant. So anyone holding out for affordable hi-def players will probably have to wait till Q2 of next year and that's still iffy.
